Forgetting what was false and what was true

Birch

Kaitalampi

Tracks

Fireplace

Shadows

Tunnel

Since Wednesday the weather has warmed up a lot, and we had rain and +2 °C on Thursday. Snow is compacting and falling off trees, so it doesn't feel so much like winter any more. But the temperature will be falling again on Friday to -5 °C. It may be rather slippery.

Here are some photographs taken on Thursday in Luukki, at lake Kaitalampi, during the blue moment after sunset.

I'll be traveling for a couple of days, and it may be that I won't return blogging here until 2013. In that case, Happy New Year!

(Posting title is from the poem The Foggy, Foggy Blue by Delmore Schwartz.)

As if it were a given property of the mind

Skiing

Lupinus polyphyllus

Lamps

My youngest daughter wanted to go skiing yesterday just before sunset, so out we went. It was excellent weather for skiing, about -14 °C, and there were even some ski tracks to use.

(Posting title is from the poem Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow by Robert Duncan.)

We cut the solid whiteness through

Stump

Sign

Twigs

Trees

Fire

Halkolampi

Sunset

Yesterday I went with two oldest daughters to Luukki, walking along lake Halkolampi to the fireplace at the north end. Some people had been at Halkolampi, but we were the first to go to the north end of the lake since the previous snowfall. We set up fire in the fireplace and had picnic, enjoying the snowy and silent landscape.

I had a look at the blog statistics, and it seems that things have stabilized since the time I stopped writing much about cameras and photography gear. At the time when I was very much into camera gear there were double the visits/visitors daily, now we are back to about 100 visits per day, according to Google Analytics.

But something strange has happened with the average visit duration. I remember it being about 1 minute, or somewhere between 1-2 minutes, but now it is at 7 min 17 seconds for the last week. This seemed strange, so I browsed through the statistics, and on December 9th the average visit duration was what I remember being normal - about one minute - but since then the average visit time has gone up sevenfold.

Has Google changed how they measure the statistics? I don't think I have been writing much more interesting stuff than I was earlier...

(Posting title is from the poem Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl by John Greenleaf Whittier.)

They hear and see, and sigh

Cut

Forest

Field

Snow

Lamp

Pine

Here are some more photographs taken yesterday. We have a winter wonderland outside. Today it stopped snowing, but more snow (and much warmer weather) is promised for tomorrow. I may be traveling later this week, the exact schedule is still a bit unclear, and thus there may be a break in the postings here.

(Posting title is from the poem A Modest Love by Sir Edward Dyer.)

Who cared about the hypotenuse now?

Fence

House

Garden

Doors

Yellow

We got a lot of new snow also today, but as it was warmer the snow was heavier, and the old snow compacted, so the snow depth is still at 74 cm. I shoveled a lot of snow, and went for a walk in the snowy forests nearby, where there were some paths with only about 15 cm of snow on top of the old tracks. Plenty of exercise for today.

If you have a stretch of road to open after such a snowfall, that would be quite a task to do without a snowplow or a snowblower.

(Posting title is from the poem A Little Shiver by Barton Sutter.)

And seek no guerdon of the skies

Car

Street

Twigs

Lamp

Fence

Tall

We got quite a lot of snow today, over 15 cm, and depth of snow is now 73 cm. For tomorrow the forecast promises additional 10 cm of snow. This is really white Christmas...

(Posting title is from the poem The World's All Right by Robert William Service.)

A wedding cake by a baker gone mad

Apple

Bent

Stream

Forest

Snow

Field

Sun

Tracks

I went skiing today, for an hour or so. The weather was fine, about -10 °C, and the ski tracks were mostly quite good. I had the LX5 with me, and took some photographs. The jog wheel is once again stuck, and doesn't work when trying to rotate to the right. So I didn't manage to set the aperture to a larger value, which would have been nice as it was so bright outside, sun low on the horizon but reflecting from the snow.

(Posting title is from the poem Horses in Snow by Roberta Hill Whiteman.)

Where nothing bad has happened

Playground

Shadows

Moon

Lights

Hazel

I have been rather busy shopping and preparing for Christmas. Mostly I have been shopping for food, to have enough to eat for the family during the Christmas time. I don't think we have ever had more foodstuff inside the house as we have now. Children are growing up, and so are their appetites.

Here are five photographs from yesterday, taken well after sunset. It is interesting that even though the day isn't really longer that it was at the shortest, one does have a feeling that we are now going towards sunnier times. Maybe it is just a feeling of Christmas.

(Posting title is from the poem Talking Richard Wilson Blues by Denis Johnson.)

No other end of the world will there be

Horse

Snow

Blur

Fence

Finally the end, of work for this year. I have now two weeks of vacation time, and then return to work. Not that it hasn't been a great year, working with great people, managing to accomplish much that didn't seem possible in the beginning. But it all came together somehow. I feel reasonably happy today. A bit sad also, perhaps, but mostly happy.

(Posting title is from the poem A Song On the End of the World by Czeslaw Milosz translated by Anthony Milosz.)